We do this in two ways. First and foremost, when an individual veteran or serving member comes to us with a complaint about their difficulty with the department, in order to resolve that complaint we must interact with the department to bring it to their attention. At every level, my staff can work across with the person in the department who can help to fix the problem.
If they're unable to do so, it comes to Mr. Schippers. Mr. Schippers will go across at his level to try to correct the problem. Sometimes it comes right to me, and I will write a letter to the deputy minister outlining the issue and making a recommendation as to how the complaint can be resolved.
We do this on a daily basis. This is the bread and butter of an ombud's job. We do it every single day for veterans and serving members. Any client of Veterans Affairs can come to us when they have a complaint. We bring that to the attention of the department because they're the ones who can fix it.
The second way we do this is with our systemic investigations. Where we see that there may be a systemic problem or a systemic inequity that is causing a barrier to the benefits and services or equitable access to benefits and services, we will launch a formal investigation. We do research with data from the department. We go into the department and understand the policies. We make findings and then craft recommendations that we believe will resolve the systemic issue. We report on those in our annual report and in our report card.
Those are the two ways in which we work on a daily basis with the department to identify gaps and barriers for veterans.